Sleepy Lion Gift Wrap

I love the idea of transforming a simple brown paper package into something amazing. This sleepy lion gift wrap is a fun and creative way to decorate a special present without a bow or fancy wrapping paper. All you need is some plain brown wrapping paper, scraps of cardstock or construction paper, a sharpie, and some tape. Overall the design is very geometric. The pieces of paper are cut in geometric shapes: rectangles, circles, Having some circle punches helps too! I had so much fun putting together this little package that you know I’ll be making some more animal themed gift wrap soon.

2. Cut out your shapes. Cut a lot of long orange rectangles. It’s ok if they aren’t all perfectly the right size. It give the lion and handmade and whimsical look. Cut out another rectangle of kraft paper for the tail, and an orange triangle. Also cut out a black trapezoid for the nose. If you’re not sure exactly how big to make it, you can cut out a few different shapes and versions of the nose to see which one you like best. (Originally I planned on making the lion’s nose with the two triangles seen below. However, it didn’t seem to fit well in this package, so I went with the trapezoid instead.)

3. Use your circle punch to punch out two tan circles and two kraft paper circles. Cut off about 1/4 of each circle. Stack the circles of the same color so that they are the exact same size.

4. Use your Sharpie to blacken in the ends of the orange rectangles. Draw little lines on the end of the orange triangle tail. Draw loops inside the kraft paper ears.

5. Attach the ears to the top corners of the box with Elmer’s Dot Runner or double sided tape. Draw a circle with your Sharpie where the lion’s face will be. I just freehanded it because I didn’t want it to be perfect, but if you want, you can trace a circle to be more precise.

6. Start attaching the lion’s mane around the black circle.It’s ok if the pieces overlap the black circle a little bit. Attach the tail to the back of the box. Then attach the lion’s cheeks and nose. Overlap the two partial tan circles so that there is a little triangle mouth at the bottom. Add the trapezoid nose to the top.

7. Add the rest of the details with your Sharpie. Remember, it doesn’t need to be perfect, but it helps to lightly sketch your drawings with a pencil first.

8. And you’re done. This sleepy lion gift wrap is almost too cute to open!

Instead of using a gift tag, use an ultra fine Sharpie to write TO and FROM on two of the orange rectangles.